Prepositions of place

Prepositions of place tell us where something or someone is. The most common ones at this level are: in (inside something — 'The pencil is in the bag'), on (on a surface — 'The book is on the desk'), under (below something — 'The cat is under the chair'), behind (at the back of something — 'The ball is behind the door'), in front of (facing the front of something — 'The dog is in front of the house'), next to (very close beside something — 'The lamp is next to the window'), and between (with one thing on each side — 'The cup is between the plate and the fork'). These words almost always come before a noun phrase: preposition + article/determiner + noun ('on the table', 'in a box', 'next to my bag'). A very common sentence pattern is: subject + verb to be + preposition + place ('The pen is on the table'). For example: 'The red book is between the pencil and the ruler on the desk.'